Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa in Israel, Dr. Michal Gal, will deliver the eighth annual Shirley Playfair Lecture, a major calendar event of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC).

The lecture will be held on Thursday, September 20 at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston and will begin at 5:30 p.m.

The late attorney-at-law, Shirley Playfair, for whom the event is named, was instrumental in establishing the FTC, the competition law enforcement agency in Jamaica.

"She was also a founding commissioner," said Executive Director, Barbara Lee in an interview with JIS News. She added that, "it is due to the fact that the FTC came into existence in the month of September (1993) why the event is staged every year in that month."

Dr. Gal is a visiting professor at Washington University as well as Assistant Professor and Academic Fellow at New York University Centre for Law and Business.

She has a body of work that includes extensive research into the efficacy of the various models of trade agreements that now govern trading relationships around the world.

Lee said that, "this is a very accomplished person who has some very strident views on how competition is to be enforced in small economies and we are going to hear her on the matter of regional trading agreements and international trading agreements."

Underscoring the significance of Dr. Gal's presentation, the executive director also said that, "we are looking forward to the launch of the CARICOM Competition Commission in November, in Suriname, where it will be located."

"This is a big step for the region, as the Commission is going to be dealing with cross-border competition matters," she added.